portrait

Grace Tan In Family + Children Portraits, Parties & Events, Portraits

Hari Raya with the Naza Family

I was honoured that an old friend had recommended me to Datuk Wira SM Faisal SM Nasimuddin, who was looking for a family portrait photographer during the Raya holidays. It was wonderful meeting the entire family behind the Naza Group of companies, including Marion Caunter. Donned in festive clothes too, I tried my best to look good setting up lights while wearing a kebaya. :)

Everyone looked really smart in their baju Raya and the kids were just too cute. Here’s the large family portrait that was set up in 5 minutes. As one of the siblings, Nadia mentioned on her Instagram account, “There’s a whole troop of nannies behind this shot”… and may I add, taking photos for the family with their mobile phones! I wish we had taken a behind the scene shot of that!

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Grace Tan In Family + Children Portraits, Portraits, Studio, Testimonials

Studio family portraits: Nicholas & Sophie

Every now and then two cute little munchkins like Lucas and Chiara would come along, and then we’d get gorgeous family portraits like the one below! Our natural light studio feels like a home, and so we get casual looking photos for the families that come through our doors. This session was photographed by Jamie.

Sophie says.. “We had booked a 1-hour studio photo shoot with Stories for family portraits, which is quite a challenge when you have two untamed little gangsters as part of the family, and when both parents are camera-shy! The photo shoot studio is very pleasant with lots of natural light – it feels a bit like home. The Stories team was great, easy-going, putting us at ease, adapting to the dynamics of the family and most importantly…we had fun! The photos are beautiful and we keep good memories of this photo session. An experience to renew, definitely!”

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Grace Tan In Family + Children Portraits, Portraits

A family’s day out at the park: The Suhaimi Family

It was a fun day out for the family. Shafinaz brought her parents and sister along for the shoot and we had a great time together. We even had to convince Shafinaz’s dad to put down his camera as he was being photographed instead! Before any family shoot, I send out a little questionnaire for our clients to fill. It’s a great way of getting to know the family. Some bits of fun facts:

Shafinaz’s mom (Putri) and her dad (Suhaimi) dated for 7 years and are now married for 36 years!
Shafinaz’s sister, Shaliza has 2 lovely children of Chinese-Malay parentage.
Shafinaz & her husband Henrik met through their shared passion of travel, underwater photography and scuba-diving. They dated for 6 months and got married.

What an awesome family.

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Grace Tan In Family + Children Portraits, Portraits

Family Portraits at the Studio: Chris & Anusha

Ever since Chris and I had decided on doing an official photo shoot with our precious baby girl Vida Nevara Gavin, we knew that there was no doubt in our selection for the photographer it had to be Grace! We loved our wedding photos done by her so much, that we still look at them until today with such happiness that it brings back such amazing memories of that special day! Vida came into our lives on 11 Feb 2014, weighing 2.7kg and we never knew how much we could love such a little human until we had her. We wanted to do a shoot when she was a bit older, so we could really capture the essence of her and she could move around more. She has such a wonderful spirit about her and we already see a strong personality about her, which Grace managed to capture in the photos, her big eyes and cheeky laugh will let her get away with murder (in our eyes) and she does what she wants, when she wants, no one can tell her otherwise! We are so lucky to have been blessed with her and we are so glad we got to document this part of our lives with Stories!

– Chris & Anusha –

20150123_FAMILYPORTRAITS_CHRIS_ANUSHA_VIDA_028 Aaaw, thanks for the wonderful testimonial, Chris and Anusha! I am so happy to have been able to see your family grow. That is one of the most biggest job satisfactions I get as a photographer! Honestly, when we did the shoot, I was a bit worried as Vida was really in a world of her own … she is exactly as you described, curious and with a strong personality! I am glad I could capture the energy this little girl has and the love between the 3 of you. Truly, we cannot imagine how much our heart can expand to love someone until we hold another life in our hands. Lots of love to all of you!

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Grace Tan In Casual Portraits, Portraits, Studio

Portrait Shoot: Pandelela Rinong

One day, I received a call from Pandelela’s new manager, Jolene Knight, whom I got to know years ago through my ex-colleague, Jek. She casually asked if I would be interested to photograph Pandelela Rinong… oh you know, our first female Malaysian diver who won a bronze medal at the 2012 Olympics in London. Yeah, like, duh, of course! I was excited to meet this pretty little lass from Sarawak (she is quite petite too, like me!).

I had a brief to create images that reflected different parts of her personality. Naturally, while at the pool, we needed to demonstrate precision, strength, power and determination… but off-work, she is fun and approachable. Thank you, Jolene and Mike for the opportunity, it was wonderful to get to know Pandelela in person.

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